2025-03-10 LFCS School Board Meeting for February 2025

001good evening welcome to Little Fall school board meeting Independent School District 482 we are in Little Falls it is March 10th 2025 and this is the 5:00 business meeting we're calling the meeting to order starting with the Pledge of Allegiance please stand and join us IED FL of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God visible andice the little fall School District mission statement is the Little Falls Community Schools work together for each learner to achieve academic and personal growth in a collaborative safe and engaging environment at this time while we announcing that we are making a couple changes on the agenda so I will be moving the approval of the agenda um in front of the public comments at this time I would need a motion to

002approve the printed agenda with the two following changes the um I have asked superintendent Johnson to do his superintendent report before the public comments and we will also be moving the flyer Pride um readings um I'm trying to think of where I put it oh where the superintendent report would be so can I have a motion for those two changes please so moved second please second we have a motion and accept and a second to approve the uh approval of the general agenda with the two changes all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed next I need a motion for the consent agenda the consent agenda includes Personnel approval of the prior meeting minutes and approval of the financial transactions a motion please so moved a second please second we have a motion

003and accepted and a second to accept the consent agenda all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed we will now go into our superintendent report I've asked him to please share what he shared with the staff for the school district's um State of the State of the school so Mr Johnson would you please take over thank you madam chair board members I'll run through this information and at any point please let me know if you have any questions I know Dan and Mark you were both present for the presentation and I'm not going to go as in depth into the very beginning of the presentation I did begin with some celebrations continued areas of focus talked about our strategic plan progress um multi- teers uh systems of support which is an important initiative

004in the school district we talked a little bit about special ed and then primarily finances and facilities and I'll work my way to finances and Facilities as quick as I can uh I highlighted a few celebrations I did want to point out that we continue to have expanding and thriving community services that I know we're all really proud of little Flyers Child Care Center which opened today continuous Improvement in special education which we're really proud of enhanced collaboration in activities and especially the success of flyer Fest this past fall and then giving a shout out to our Esports achievements and success as a new activity in our district spent some time looking at academic success and I highlighted fourth grade across our district showed an increase of 14% reaching Benchmark in a math assessment from

005fall to winter and then kindergarten in first grade showed a decrease in high-risk students which is a good thing from fall to winter and aath assessment slide four celebrations in grade seven and N we increase by 5 to 6% of students meeting Benchmark in a reading assessment from fall to winter and then really exciting is when we have students that are identified as at risk and especially in kind Garten we exited eight kindergarteners from Reading intervention this winter due to the success that they've achieved and then over the last two years Little Fall schools has increased profic proficiency rates by 6.5% in math on the MCA State tests covered our strategic plan the four pillars of our plan teaching and learning finance and Facilities wellness and mental health Communications and marketing and I won't go

006through each of these slides but talked about some of the achievements in each one of those four pillar areas and then some areas of continued Focus we it seems like at least right now this snapshot in time and looking at our student achievement results that we're doing a little bit better in math than we are in reading so we want to continue that focus on reading comprehension and fluency and then I think really most importantly is as we look at our graduation rate we continue to have um areas that we need to improve in supporting our students to make sure that when they start with us as a freshman as a nth grader that they they graduate on time in loal schools multi-tiered systems of support is really the initiative I believe in our I

007hope our staff I know our administrative team really believe that this is the strategy to help us meet our goals within the Strategic plan and that's making sure that we are focusing on whole student development that we have aligned resources in what's taught in our classrooms and in intervention and special education that we have identified well researched interventions in place we make decisions based on data we hopefully reduce referrals to special education because we're providing support in tier one and tier two obviously improving our graduation rates and really excited about Lisa solver's leadership and working with an mtss District leadership team special education just real quick uh the percentage of special education students last year we had in our December headcount count 583 special ed students and this year the December headcount is 627 students

008in speci education that's 24% of our student body State average is at 19% and our spending in special ed increased by over $500,000 last year to support special education jumping into finances and Facilities again it's the second tier within our strategic plan and uh one of the the goals and strategies to help support that area was creating a task force and so back in November we convened 30 people to come together in this room and address um some of the challenges that we're that we're facing in these two areas and those stakeholder members included parents business owners uh staff members administrators board members and we start we started with a deep dive into both areas what's the current state of affairs and Little Fall schools with finances as well as facilities and that work took

009place from November through January and the goal and you'll see with throughout this presentation the word ideas is underlined that it was to generate ideas for the school board to consider so we kicked off the first meeting November 12th that's with everybody together all 30 people the next three meetings we had we broke off into subgroups so half of the team focused on finances the other half focused on facilities and myself and Chris muik led the finance team Mark deal led the facility team and I'll share just some of the the detailed information that we went through in both groups and then we brought everybody together on January 27th to present our ideas with each other so again again January 27th we wrapped up the task force so to speak doesn't mean we can't bring

010that group back together on February 3rd we shared some of those initial ideas with the board during a work session February 10th I shared some information at the regular school board meeting we continue to conduct additional internal research with some of those ideas March 5th last Wednesday I shared the state of the district address and then today more information with you folks this was the information I shared on February 10th at the board meeting summarizing some of that work and then just diving into the finance subgroup so the finance subgroup and the work that we did we looked at our current and projected budget we looked at our current and projected enrollment and I'll share that data with you here in a second we talked about ways to generate additional Revenue which I think just

011about every District in the state is trying to do that right now we looked at a snapshot of the tax profile of our community and we actually had one meeting with our financial advisers to dig in even a little bit deeper this is a snapshot of our enrollment last week and you can see it's goes across the board kindergarten through grade 12 we have on the books 188 seniors that we plan to graduate this spring and 139 kindergarteners currently in our school district and you can see like any District you have the EB and flow of enrollment our third graders are the highest group at 189 and in grade six the lowest right now at 139 and of course what you see in Little Fall schools is is a little bit of a surge in

012grade n as students from Mary of Lords enter our school system this is a look back at our enrollment Back to 201819 Before the pandemic you can see our total enrollment K through 12 was 2434 students today it's 2297 students and for those of you who've been in the district a while and I can go back to when I was a student in Little Falls Community Schools I know the graduating class that I had was 315 students so there was a time when the total enrollment in Little Fall schools was well over 3,500 students so that's that's quite a drop when you look at 2297 students today projected enrollment again the best we can do is look at the data that we have and look at the trends that we have in our enrollment as

013well as looking at information we have regarding preschool numbers and census data and so Chris I know spends a a lot of time looking at this and again you can see that that consistent slow steady decline and enrollment is what we're projecting and again if you looked at 50 school districts in outstate Minnesota you would probably see the exact same Trend budget impacts uh data points that board members I think you're pretty famili familiar with that if State funding had has kept up with inflation that we would be recognizing about $1,300 more per pupil than we currently see we're anticipating from the state because of the last legislative session about $200 per pupil for next year which will be just over $500,000 for the school district which is wonderful but as our enrollment declines it

014has almost a negative impact on our funding and losing if you typically we take about $10,000 in Revenue per student that's where we have the $500,000 expenditures of course like everybody experiences they continue to go up and then just overall if you look at our enrollment from fiscal year 19 to fiscal year 26 so pre pandemic post pandemic we're down about 150 students times $10,000 per pupil is one .5 million and that's the number one way that we generate Revenue as a school district is our student count our fund balance currently is starting to trickle in the right direction we're up we hope to be at 6.3% at the end of this fiscal year um and hope to at some point get to that state average which is 15 to 20% uh more things that

015seem to work against us is this session despite the increase of $200 per pupil the governor's proposed state budget is calling for reductions to special education Transportation reimbursement 5% next year 10% the year after that would have an impact on our general fund and then just as of last week looking ahead to fiscal year 28 and 29 the state is forecasting a deficit of $6 billion and the state is about 70% of our school district funding so that's concerning at this point this is a snapshot of Little Falls Community Schools projected fund balance at the end of this school year fiscal year 25 we anticipate a fund balance of over $500,000 hope even closer to $600,000 when it's all said and done if we do nothing as a school district if we do not increase

016any of our Reven Revenue if we don't gain additional students if there's not additional funding by the end of next year 25 26 we would be in the whole $21,000 in our fund balance we'd have to tap into it to cover expenditures if we continue to do nothing out through 27 28 and 29 you can see how that debt compounds into our fund balance of 670,000 1.8 million and then over $3 million out through fiscal year 29 when our financial advisers came in with the finance subgroup I know this is really difficult to read but it's a comparison of what does Little Fall School District look like from a tax standpoint compared to enrollment districts which are districts that are similar to Little Fall schools in size number of students and so you have Winona

017rori Marshall Hutchinson Byron Becker and this is the amount that a a homeowner pays on a home of $225,000 in these communities and in Little Falls it's $643 a year on a $225,000 home and again compareed comparatively to a handful of like siiz districts this is compar compared to our neighboring districts again here's Little Falls 643 Pillager Brainard Staples Motley Pi Browerville upsa Royalton swanville and I know swanville just passed a referendum in the middle of February this is a snapshot of our District's existing debt which comes in the form of a levy so if you look at 2023 24 25 where we're at today that existing debt is pretty steady when it it comes to our taxpayers it can fluctuate a little bit I think most of this debt right now is from a

018referendum back in 2015 or 16 Chris and you can see in 2036 that debt falls off which in most districts where that happens it creates an opportunity to be able to fund additional projects or to be able to generate additional Revenue in the snapshot that I showed you here just earlier with our current fund balance situation 2036 is a long ways away for us to be able to wait and be able to have a solution to our existing problem I wish it was more in that 26 27 instead of 3637 so the finance group and looking at all of this that subgroup came up with these things to consider and again ideas only for the school board to explore additional budget reductions we've reduced $3 million in two years and there's probably a few places

019that we can continue to tighten the belt and that's our goal administratively and we believe that tightening the belt of to about $400,000 to prepare us for next year would be a smart move which $400,000 is a lot of money but compared to the prior two years reductions it should be attainable number two from the finance subgroup was conduct a comprehensive School District survey to gather additional information from the community number three plan for a referendum within two years or less I think our business manager would prefer less but two years or less number four consider adding a market and grant writing position that would pay for itself and and create additional revenue for the district and then another idea again because it's up here it does not mean it's going to happen but something

020to look at is the feasibility of a 4day school week and how that could impact funding and programming and then this group despite not focused on facilities also agreed that in looking at the data closing a school may be unnecessary thing to look at some information about the marketing grant writer position ideas I won't get into that conducting a school district survey that might ask questions about tax tolerance of our community members ask questions about a 4-day school week closure of a school determine what those Community priorities are and then some talking points related to a 4-day school week I won't read these but could that be a mechanism to not only re retain and keep some of our students as we look at the number of students that we lose to open enroll enrollment

021but could it be a means of generating additional students coming to the district again all ideas I think there are seven or eight districts in the state of Minnesota right now that function on 4 day school week the other half of the fac the task force was the facility side that Mr deal LED and that group toured all of our facilities and uh reviewed the facility data from age of buildings maintenance schedule and maintenance needs and it wasn't just a walk down the hallways it was into boiler rooms and many unique spaces within our schools to really get an understanding of what the the state of our our buildings look like and just as a a note the newest building in our school district is the high school which was built and opened in 1972

022and again ideas ideas from this facility team to create better utilization and efficiencies of District's buildings is to look at closing two facilities and you can see the idea of closing um possibly again idea Explorer the idea of converting the high school into a 712 secondary school that's not uncommon draw a circle around Little Falls district and outside of Brainard I think most function in a 712 type setting um letter B Clos doctor Knight Elementary was another idea and repurpose both location although we have a lot we have more square footage right now than we need as a district and not as many students as we used to have we don't have enough gym space and that came out of strategic planning that came out of this task force finding as well and then we

023to this day continue to have ongoing deferred maintenance issues that will need to be addressed in the district District next steps um there'll be discussion tonight in a brief presentation about a community survey if we move ahead with that that survey would be crafted in March administered in April we hope to have results the end of April and then this group and Gathering all that information new information additional information that we have from task force and others really try to make a decision that supports our strategic plan and our finances and Facilities moving forward in may possibly June or July that's all I have Madam chair you go back and question that last slide that you had if we were to make a decision in May or June are you saying that we would vote

024to make a decision in May or June or just next steps like discussion of what the next steps would be I think the board what would be beneficial is for the board to create an action plan for finance and Facilities it might be a 3mon six Monon to get to whatever the goal is we need to make a decision on something and again you I don't I I just can't put enough urgency on the fact that we have to make some decisions soon sooner than later when you look at our financial situation any other questions for Mr Johnson I will I'm sorry I will I will share this with it's I'm thankful for this that as we've pushed out information um and asked for people to share input and I've received a couple of clever

025ideas that I have not come through the finance and facility task force which I'm thankful to be able to look at with all of you folks as we move forward for and I think maybe some of you folks too have received some additional ideas that's all I have thank you anybody else on the board that have any comments or questions regarding this okay then we are going to go back onto our agenda and we'll be opening up for public comments before we call up the first people for that if you have a listing for me um we do have a policy regarding public comments which I'll read to you little Falls Community Schools welcomes you to a meeting of the Little Falls Board of Education this portion of the agenda will be limited to a

026total of not more than 30 minutes individual speakers are asked to limit their comments to not more than three minutes and we do have a timer that will be going the board asks that all comments be in keeping with and contribute to an atmosphere of civil courteous thoughtful and respectful disclosure our first person who's asked to speak is um Adam Patrick Adam would you come forward introduce yourself and let us know what you want to speak to us about also I want to let you know with public comments we cannot this is not a two-way this is you sharing your ideas and then we will take notes on those and get back to you later uh good evening School Board uh I'm Adam Patrick um I'm attending the meeting tonight to voice my opinion on

027a rumor I've heard circulating around the district and local community uh it is about the possibility of the permanent closing of Dr Knight Elementary in Randall which we just saw in the superintendent report that might not be a rumor um whether or not this rumor is true I am unsure I am unsure but still think the board should hear what I have to say about the matter in case this were to come true I was lucky enough to attend Dr knight from preschool through fth grade during that time I made lifelong friends and received one-on-one teaching from some of the best teachers in the district District as I got older I couldn't help but think to myself it is awesome that future Generations have the opportunity to go through Randall school and had the same

028experiences I did when I attend the when I attended the school I I reflect back remember that students were not just a number the teachers know the students and the family members well making Dr Knight more family oriented than our other two elementary schools statistically doctrinate students in fifth grade on average Over The Last 5 Years score higher than the district average in math reading and science MCA test meaning most students graduating fifth grade from Dr Knight are more prepared for sixth grade curriculum than the other two elementary schools now the future of that school is uncertain thanks to Reckless spending that was not voted upon by the taxpayers of this district and has driven the district flat broke if our financial issues stem from a low number of enrollment which Mr John impressed pretty

029hard in his report we just heard I think that is something we need to explore further the main question of you board members should be what is driving families away from this District we have a school board that is unable to balance a checkbook and keep the funding that we have in check and is not up to the challenge of fixing our financial crisis we could be closing entire schools yet our higher Administration gets the best pay in the area the superintendent says we are in a financial crisis yet this very build we are in costs us how many tens of thousands of dollars a year in rent and is now used for what I feel the members of this board have not kept the best interest of the taxpayers in mind and that when

030it comes to making a big decision their minds have been made up since before listening to the public Randall school has kept young families in the area for decades because of the reputation of the school and now we can watch the town dry up thanks to poorly managed School District closing the building permanently I know there are many more that are against the closing of Dr Knight many of them are sitting behind me now I ask you board members please keep us in mind if the decision is ever on the table to pull the plug on this great school one thing I would like to add I would like to see how much money would closing doctorate save this school district I think we should see that before a decision is made within the very

031soon if we're pressing to do something soon we need to see how much money that's going to save so thank you thank you next we have Whitney Tumi tuni um I'm a crier just in advance I've been s I'm tired um my name is Whitney Toney and I open and roll my two boys Mason and Tucker Mason's in first grade and Tuckers in preschool at Dr Knights um I'm also the third grade teacher at Dr Knight Elementary School um I gave my third graders a writing prompt last week that just said what do you love about doctor Knight and they gave some sweet thoughtful answers um so I just brought a copy for everybody to read these are our clients these are our students these are Dr Knight kids so I brought a copy for

032you guys to keep and share and read um I have their Originals um some of their answers were my classes my family and they're the same every year um I live close to my school I have a short bus ride I know my teachers my family works here my siblings go to school with me um and also through my parent lens um my own son Tucker is already enrolled for this fall at Dr Knight Elementary in the preschool he um and he's one of 14 kids who already had an accepted contract for this fall um and I know myself I've been planning work schedules before and after school care um already you know as of February he was signed up and if a decision is made in May or June that would affect this fall

033um a lot of daycares are already full other preschools are already full um I worry about my four-year-old having to take a bus back and forth and for those community members who live in Randall putting a four-year-old on a bus for an extended period of time an hour maybe to get to Little Falls is so scary and we talked about one of the pillars being the the wellness and the mental health of students um please consider making Dr Knight K8 expand us let's retain those students who may otherwise go to pill for middle school and keep them at Dr KN let's let's let's worry about the mental health and the wellness of these children by keeping them in a small setting until until they're old enough to attend the high school let's retain those kids

034um thank you thank you Renee crley so my name is Renee crowy and I am in support of keeping the Randall school open you know the past few years there's been a lot of controversy about the public school system I've attended some of the meetings and haven't been happy with a lot of things um if I had my choice my granddaughters would be homeschooled or go to Mary Bo School but they live in Randall and I I find the Randall school the next best thing to homeschooling if a parent can't do that the classes are small they get a good education and like the first person spoke he had more um percentages details bigger schools like Lincoln and Lindberg they're not going to get the attention they're not going to get the one-on-one quality education

035and source well you know they seem to have their fingers into everything they have so much money for certain things that a lot of people don't agree with the Dei the I don't know the transgenders just special bathrooms so why doesn't sourcewell step in and fund the Randall school or any other school that needs help they also spent millions of dollars on a daycare that we just built at Lincoln School well first first of all it should be up to the parents to find daycare for their children not the school not the government that money then could have been better spent at the Randall school if there is a money shortage um I've also read several times that children graduating from The Little Falls High School it's like that 30 to 45% they're um proficient

036in reading and math so okay and then they just the other guy had just said that the reading and math are higher coming from the Randall school because they get better quality education so um I think the money if money's being spent poorly then that needs to be looked at um yeah I do not want to see the Randall school close and um yeah let's take care of it properly thank you that is all I have that I've signed up to speak for this this this evening so we are going to go back into our regular agenda then okay you didn't have that on okay so would you come forward and introduce yourself then please good afternoon everyone my name is Hannah I have two children enrolled in the little fall School District specifically at

037Dr Knight um I'm here today to touch on two subjects actually regarding Dr Knight one being the safety protocols within the school district and the other being the proposal to close Dr Knight as the funding scale back my children are third generation of my family to attend Dr Knight as there are many other students within the school whose parents also went to doite this just goes to show you how much this small But Mighty school is loved within the community however recently with some new staff changes this year there have been some incidents with in the school that we feel are not being fully handled there is a child within the school that is deemed the school bully over the years many of our children have been involved in incidents with this student my child

038personally had some physical and emotional run-ins with this student in the past which with the help of the past School socials specials EDS Department we were working through and seemed to be on the right path now this year my student along with many others were thriving and enjoying school with their fourth grade teacher recently that teacher was let go and things have not been the same since our kids were already on edge and in transition to having a new teacher when this particular student started to have outbursts within the school and is also being mentally and physically abusive to their peers this student threw tables and chairs one day after losing a game of TIG some of the students witnessed this behavior before the school was ultimately put into a soft lockdown which emotionally played

039a toll on children throughout the whole school not just that grade the student was not in mainstream classes the following day which was good but we were but we inquired as parents about our children's safeties um about our children's safety we were met with we cannot discuss the situation because of student privacy as a parent of a child that was the cause of this student being taken out of the game prior to the incident I had a valid concern for my child's safety and possible retaliation however I was not giving any answers I was also concerned about what an unstructured field trip not even 48 hours later would look like if that child attended and if after such behaviors the child would be allowed to attend when earlier in the week all the other students

040were told that if they had bad behaviors they could not attend and even if this student has an IEP that should not give them any special treatment to this as my child also has an IP and was held to those standards fast for to the following week not even a full week since incident number one this student physically grabbed another student and tried to hit others ultimately ending with their peers holding that student down in fear for their friend's safety while another peer went to find a playground Aid once inside the student went into a room and started throwing things again students that were involved in the incident were brought into the office and talked to by the principal as a parent of a student that was involved I should have been informed but was

041not although a friend happened to be at the school right before her child was brought in to talk to the principal yes thank you thank you for everybody who's brought your opinions and and comments to the board um I'll now turn this over to Kelsey for the resolution for the acceptance of gifts whereas the following have generously offered um whereas the following have generously offered to donate to lilf Falls Community Schools therefore be it resolved by Li Community Schools Board of Education to gratefully accept the gifts Randall cushen Lions Club gambling account donation of $1,000 to the Little Falls Community Schools robotics program Central Minnesota noon Optimist Club Incorporated donation of $1,000 to Little Falls Community School's care closet Minnesota Power Foundation donation of $1,000 to Little Falls Community Schools Esports program Little Falls Sportsman

042Club Club donation of $300 to Li Falls Community Schools gun safety training program mark wood foundation and partnership with the initiative Foundation donation Grant of $5,700 to Little Falls Community Schools Lincoln Elementary mentorship program Mary Jee healthc care scholarship fund a partner fund with the initiative Foundation donation Grant of $5,000 to Little Falls Community School's Mary Jean Tilman Healthcare scholarship fund frean frean fren Excuse Me Foundation scholarship fund a partner fund with the initiative Foundation donation of $1,100 to Little Falls Community Schools reine mess that up every time scholarship fund Beverly M pansky scholarship fund in partnership with the initiative Foundation don donation of $22,000 to the Little Falls Community Schools Beverly M pant Sky scholarship fund Pam Shilling donation of $350 to Little Falls Community Schools Jeff Shilling life is good scholarship fund John

043D surma donation of $6,000 to the Little Falls Community Schools surma family scholarship fund Lois M geesi donation of $300 to the Little Falls Community Schools choir program Sentra soda Cooperative donation of $2,000 to the Little Falls Community Schools FFA program Jean ha Foundation donation of $2,750 to the Little Falls Community Schools robotics fund so I believe I need a second a second okay and then in a roll call Julie Mark yes Dan yes Sharon yes and myself yes thank you Kelsey we'll now be going into the presentations our first one is our student repres presentative updates um we just wanted to preface this with we we did used to have free student Representatives but our third moved halfway through the year to Washington so she's no longer to be present at the meetings I

044believe yeah I believe she is still following up on what's going on but she is not able to be here physically yeah thank you so just to preface if you two need to leave early it's because of M M so yeah you guys are looking for anything to do tonight starts at 7 and admission is free all right so the first thing I'll talk about is our spring activities that are starting up so some of our spring Sports started today we had track and field which Molly and I are a part of so we just came from that and then baseball and softball and then golf is starting next week on Monday and then trap is also starting sometime this month and then for musical we're doing a year with frog and toad um practices

045for that started last month and then the show shows are going to be May 1st May 2nd and May 3rd coming up here next week we have the band in choir trip um this happens every 3 years and sophomores any sophomores through seniors involved in the band or choir program are allowed to are given the opportunity to go on this trip we fund raise um they went when we were freshmen so we've had the opportunity to fund rais throughout our entire High School career with like chocolate bars or coffee fundraisers things like that so um we fundraise for a while and we get to go on a trip from the 19th through the 24th so we leave next Wednesday sometime in the morning but yeah we get to do a lot of different fun stuff

046um uh we're doing the band related things that we're doing uh we're doing a master class at Vanderbilt for a good chunk of time it should be a lot of fun I think we're also touring the university as well and then we're going to do a recording session at Studio B which is where Elvis recorded aot lot of his albums as well so we'll get to see a lot of that stuff which is really cool um we're going to get to go to the Nashville Zoo we're taking a day and we're going to Memphis to see graceand which is really exciting um We're Going to the Country Music Hall of Fame um we're going on a Nashville nightlife dinner theater tour um the Nashville Symphony Orchestra with the Lion King which is something that the

047Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra does as well they did one for Elf I believe they do a bunch in the winter time for uh winter movies but it's really fun um we're going to see a show at the Grand Old oery uh we're going to go we're going on a tour of the BME Plantation um we're going to the National M Museum of African-American music which is a new addition to me or to Nashville I believe so it's fairly new which is exciting that we get to see that and then we're going on a Riverboat Cruise of the Music City of nights show and uh they say that's going to look really cool to see the entire city at night like that so it should be really fun all in five days all in five days our

048days are pretty packed all right so we had some accomplishments from our Olympic weightlifting team that I would like to talk about so they had State on Saturday and there were 12 people who made it to State and then there were a lot of people who finished on the podium but two state champions are Zoe and Payton so shout out to them because state champions that's not something I could do so it's very actually third place on in that picture is uh Little Falls participant as well so they had lot success there yes lots of success for the weightlifting team yeah for sure um we kind of talked about this already but we're we have mass band tonight if you guys aren't familiar with what Mass band is I can just kind of go over

049it really quick so um there is a band program at um the elementary um it starts in fifth grade me and Ellie both started in fifth grade um so it's it starts there with Mrs Peterson and then it it heads over to the middle school they have a sixth seventh and eighth grade Band program so they're separated there are a lot of Middle School band students so they do have to keep it separate but once you get to the high school um there's a concert band which is uh for freshmen and some sophomores and then we have a wi Symphony program as well which is for mostly upper classmen but um the mass band is when we all come together and do a performance so um we will be performing four songs together but we

050also each have our own individual ual song which is fun so you get to Showcase uh the specific band from the school year from and then we also get to do songs together they also bring eighth graders over from um Mary of Lords as well they don't bring their entire band but just eighth graders um it is tonight at 7 at the high school um we're taking donations for project Band-Aid uh which is money to help repair um instruments uh we're taking donations for the food shelf because um I believe it's like Food donation month um and then we taking donations for play it again at the door um yeah yeah do you guys have any questions at all sounds like you're busy oh yeah yes enjoy enjoy your trip thank you thank you can

051I note too that Little Falls um have five wrestlers compete in the Minnesota State High School league wrestling state tournament Ivan Patrick finished second um I'm going to need some help here but I know Bo Robinson Noah Cameron no third and fifth what is the uh first name of the other Cameron uh kobby Colby thank you and Seth and Seth ramale thank you it was great presentation nerve-wracking when you're sitting up here and just getting text as of this happened and that happened tell you from from personal experience on that our next presentation is the FFA presentation you would come forward please introduce yourself I'm Emily Westerman I'm the president of our little Falls FFA chapter I'm Addison Redstone I'm Emma butter class I am the treasur of the Little Falls f chapter thank you

052um we're doing a presentation on the dairy evaluation CDE which is the CDE that us three have competed in the fourth person could be here driver ed but we made it to state for this this year and we just want to explain a little bit what it is who's your fourth person Brook H yes thank you what is a career development event which is a CDE through career and leadership development events participating FFA members in grades 7 through 12 are challenged to develop critical thinking skills and effective decision making skills Foster teamwork and PR communication while recognizing in value the ethical competition and individual achievement so dairy cattle evaluation in dairy cattle evaluation the CD students are looking for qualities of a dairy animal identification future or present production and also will help find replacement

053animals and how they would work in the students operation this Regional competition is held at H key holin farms in pi Minnesota Dairy C dairy cattle evaluation six Place team stateb left to right Addison rut Stone Brooklyn Holtz Emily Westerman second place individual and Emma butterf how does judging work at the Pierce High School students judge a class on S selection which is four different Bulls in their traits such as frame size milk production and Cav ease at hapy Holstein Farm we judge five groups of live cows including spring Cales winter Cals summer yearlings threee old cow in lactation and age cow in lactation that are over 5 years of age so how did Judge a class of holin La hating cow it's blurry but like this is just like an example of like cows

054that we would like go and judge so you'd always you kind of just want to look for the like for the other you don't want it to be dropped down you want to see how blended it is for the frame you want it to be sturdy doesn't look wobbly or weak and while they walk you don't want them to have be like putting more pressure on the foot or one side of their body so these would be some this would be something we would use in practicing for our region and state competition States coming up in April and also also our poultry team is made it to State as well so we'll be bringing them with us in April and this is just like an example of um so for one of the classes we

055do reasons and this is an example of reasons so we State why we placed cows in like the class and you have to like do this oneon-one with somebody else and explain to them why reasons and how this class was placed okay yeah you don't we're not going to like read the whole thing cuz it's just like you can like glance over it but it's just pretty self-explanatory going over it but very thorough yeah is there questions on any of how many how many members do you have in our local FFA um so this recent year we have involv swanville in our chapter so between Little Falls and swanville we have roughly 30 members how long have the three of you been judging I've been doing dairy cattle since seventh grade I made it to

056State my seventh grade year I didn't eighth grade or ninth grade but I made it again 10th grade um this is my first year this is my second year last year I did not go to State this year I did congratulations any other questions for the ladies how successful was the pancake Rec a couple weeks ago we had a significant increase in donations so I would say that's a huge Plus in our silent auction also there was an increase from last year so I'd say we did very well on it thank you lady presentation our next presentation is regarding the community survey that superintendent Johnson um referred to earlier do we have a specific person going through this it's online yes so I would Peter are you there I am here thanks for thanks for

057joining us so just real quickly Peter before we get started um oh several weeks ago Committee of the board had the opportunity to meet with Peter to learn a little bit more about his company's ability to offer what we call scientific surveys and the benefits um that they bring to districts that are looking to gather additional information so with that Peter you uh I'm just going to do a quick run through of our board meeting we have a couple of student representatives and then our board members are here and then we have audience of folks as well so I'll turn it over to you Peter and we thought you know what 5 10 minute o high level overview of the survey process and then maybe an opportunity for questions sure absolutely I I'll just kind

058of walk you through I think I did with the um the subcommittee uh with the board and just how we do what we do and why we do it the way we do it are you all there yes I'm sorry I didn't want okay no that's fine that sounds good um so what we do we do telephone surveys and the rationale for a telephone survey uh there are multiple reasons um you know there's a difference uh between quantitative and qualitative research and a lot of the surveys you see out there during our wonderful election season that we just are still recovering from um uh our self- selection surveys uh where people opt in and what we traditionally find well not traditionally 30 years ago when I started doing this we traditionally found when you did

059a self- selected survey and I was thinking about this the other night when I was talking with the school district is you know when I started doing this there were no uh the internet really was just in its infancy there were no internet surveys but mail out surveys uh what happened was um it tended to skew much more negative um what we have found over the last uh probably 10 to 15 years in self- selection surveys whether it is a mail out or an internet survey is um people try to win the survey um an example is a district a few years ago in Western Minnesota that that did an internet mail out service combined and showed 70% support for the funding request and the board went ahead and did the project uh put another

060ballot and it failed 4060 uh and looking at the demographics the demographics were made up of that survey of 74% households containing children in the district uh where the actual representation was about 25% um and so we we typically see this um and so with a telephone survey uh what we do is we select a random sample uh of residents in the district and it takes us longer um it's not like the telephone surveys uh also where they call over two nights and then rewe the data we'll set up appointments convenient as possible for the person to take the survey because I don't want to bias a sample against those with an active lifestyle um and so if it's not when it's convenient for my phoners to give the survey it's when it's convenient for

061the person to take the survey and we'll accomplish omate that request um and so in doing this and working with school districts um you know for for all these years there's there's a method of The Madness of what we're surveying um first off um we we highly recommend that you look at the atmospherics in the district and by atmospherics it's questions from people's perception on the quality of Education people's uh values and what they like most what's the most Ser serious issue facing the school district uh ratings of the the school board the administration Communications uh trusts and finances spending um communication involvement uh of the community that can the community have a say all those sorts of aspects because those all go into a person's decision making um when they're looking at a funding

062request and on Election Day you want folks to walk in the voting booth and do a simple cost benefit analysis what's being asked for how much does it cost and do I think that that value is worth it you don't want them to bring in the past a superintendent from 20 years ago you know there's there's a school district here in the metro area that I think they closed the high school 50 years ago and it still will come up um as a reason that they'll never support the school district is because they closed Bloomington Lincoln School District uh or a high school all of those things come into play um and so we want to understand if there are any of those issues uh then once we ascertain that information then we drill down

063into what the specifically the funding request is and we always stop start from a top level of what is their predisposition if they heard the district was going to ask for a property tax increase are they for all are they against all are they persuadable um what's their willingness what's a reasonable tax increase break down individual components of what's being requested what the funding would be used for um and then um you know if you're far enough along in the process some districts are testing messaging um you know the messages you would hear from the proide and the conside um and to understand that impact um so that we can come back and you know the the current state of public opinion um is very difficult for school districts right now um and you know

064last year 41% of districts passed funding requests 59% failed uh the two overarching concerns uh really had nothing to do with the specifics of what the school district was asking for um it was the economic situation of the household how financially stressed are they um coupled with property tax hostility and the property tax issue um for those that were around in the 9s it's very similar to what we're seeing the taxpayers league came into play um in the '90s um it it evaded um but since uh 2023 it has increased and it's increased even more markedly um they I'm surprised with the school district and City surveys that I'm running uh just in the first two months now of 2025 um because there's been a marked uptick in property tax hostility uh just based on

065uh levies that were set last fall um so you know the process uh you know kind of keep it high level um you know if you hire us typically set up what I call a brainstorming discussion uh with whoever the district uh wants me to talk to um you tell me what questions you want answered and the the main the first main charge I have is to write neutrally worded questions um I can write a question to elicit whatever answer you want but it doesn't do anybody any good um it just has to be simple and matter of fact and there has to be no values put in uh to try to swing the opinion one way or the other because we want people just to have to give an honest assessment based on a

066straightforward question um that process typically takes uh I say two to two days to two months uh I would say typically in the 3 to 4 week uh range um we take two weeks to make the phone calls um and you know like I mentioned setting up appointments making a convenient for people uh and then about a week or two to code and data enter and then I have the results it's it's typically I'm ready to present the survey uh to the clients somewhere in the 6 to 8we range typically um that can be expedited I'm Expediting one right now for um a client that the school district that needs to get information in front of a facilities committee for a potential uh fall Bond referendum um so it can be expedited but that's kind

067of the typical process so was kind of a broad quick brush I'd be happy know at this point I'm sure folks have questions yep thank you Peter Peter how do you select or how is it determined how many people you survey and who it is in our community that you survey the the who's who's selected is completely random I go into it uh there's a database um that has all our information cell phone landline all of those sorts of things and I just pull a random sample um completely blind there's there's no value you're not any more likely to select if you're a household with a parent or household with a child uh versus households with seniors it's just completely random process um the surveying process I'll talk about just a quick on the process

068uh so with through this database there's a lot of demographic information about all of us but then also we have census data and so I will have an understanding of the profile of the school district so what percent of households have children what percent of households have seniors homeowners versus renters um geographic distribution based on registered uh voters um so it will I I'll set quotas within that because once again I don't want to rewe um this data because when you rewe it applies that demographics equal behavior and opinion and my business partner and I wholeheartedly disagree with that uh assessment um and so when we arrive at the sample size the recommendation it comes down to a cost benefit analysis for clients um a 400 sample in your school district a 400 sample in

069the county or a 400 sample across the state of Minnesota is plus or minus 5% the margin of VAR is determined by the size of the stample not the percent of the population so that's why you know the the gold standard for public opinion for years was Gallup um the Gallup presidential poll um and if you look at it historically it has always been incredibly it's the gold standard for a reason it's 1,113 people plus or minus 3% across the entire country um and so uh do we recommend a 400 for for clients because our costs are driven by how many people we talk to and how many questions we ask them to gain a point in the margin of er to go to plus or minus 4 from plus or minus 5 you have

070to talk to 625 people which increases the cost by 50% and it probably son odd for a vendor to say I have a conscience I can't argue to a client and say it really makes sense to pay 50% more to gain the point in the margin of error it it just it's an Integrity thing there are sometimes and it's something to consider and look at um in an off your election um we do do larger samples not for the margin of error but to look at likely voters uh because in an off-ear election it hopefully you'll have somewhere between 25 and 35% um so some districts will choose to do the larger say a 625 so then we'll have 200 up to 250 likely voters to understand that profile Peter just to clarify where are

071you Gathering finding the data of people to call telephone numbers Etc it's yeah it's it's the it's called the L2 database um so it's um a tool online developed out of a uh political campaigns uh through the years that of course they've monetized um and so it has every person in the country um and so I can just isolate the school district and I can I can get a count and then I just tell generate 400 names for me uh and pull a sample randomly from that and then within that we do uh the birthday method um because if we talk to whoever answers the phone full first up nobody answers the phone uh the first time even if it's your spouse um so we leave messages we work with the school district to communicate

072um that you've hired us to do the project and uh you're part of a random sample if you're called um but then uh we do the birthday method so can we talk to the person whose birthday is closest today that we calling because women are two times more likely to answer to the phone than men um as my wife well the time Peter I've heard people say that no one's going to stay on the phone for 50 to 60 70 possible questions but you've experienced pretty high success rate of people staying engaged in that process absolutely yeah we we'll keep the refusal rate will be less than 10% when when we deal with local government the key is to make it convenient a lot of refusal comes from it's not convenient I don't want to

073take the survey cuz I'm taking my kid to hockey or whatever um and so that's so when is it convenient for you to take the survey um but beyond that at at a bigger level people still care about their city and their school district uh doing a survey both the state of Minnesota or the federal government that's a bit more challenging uh the more disconnected you get um but yeah as cities will do I just started a city survey uh for a client they do one every single year and that one's about 160 questions um that's that that survey will take about 30 35 minutes on average and you know 60 70% of those will be done by appointment when it's convenient for the person to take the survey so um you know it's they

074still care so even if we do the somewhere between 50 and 70 questions that that'll be probably in the 10 to 12 minute range you'll have people that stay on the phone for over an hour of their own bition we call them the district historians um and my phoners are not paid by the survey they're just paid by the hour um and so you just have long conversations sometimes Peter in the in the end do you present the data back to the district so there's a a followup report correct I will come up I will I will do the presentation in person um and then you know what clients have told us through the years is you know it's it's interesting that 50% feel this way and 50% feel that way um but with the

075database and you know at some point I should sit down and try to figure out it worked on well over a thousand uh operating levies and bond referendums over the years but we provide Norms so what does 50% mean um is it a good result is it a bad result to give context to what the results mean because just as they sit by themselves they're interesting like I you know the first thing I can think of if um if we do a if you do a survey right now if you're in the field right now for November um and it comes back with an you you test an operating Levy and you have 56% support I will tell you you need to make changes even though you have majority support uh historically and understanding how

076campaigning Works what happens typically is the attrition from because it's a pristine environment right now there's been no vote yes there's been no vote no there's there's nothing out there this this is as good as it gets um and so if there are 10 clients two will run a very good vote Yes uh um you know they will have this community group out there that works hard gets the voters out um and they will maintain but the typical client the regression is 8% um and so you know not knowing that if the district just looks it says we have 56% support um that's a coin flip um at best um and so you know that that's what I provided the presentation and then we'll write a final report so it's in print also Peter on

077a survey sample size of 400 um when you make those calls do you get results for the 400 or the 10% loss is for those ones that don't stay on the actual whole call no it'll be 400 completed okay so if if if if they refuse we'll do replacement I actually do have we have a couple of grandmothers that were at the phone bank and their task is to call people who refuse it's hard to say no to Grandma you just you just tell them that you know I understand that it didn't work out when we called earlier but this really is important and you're part of a random sample and they'll they'll get eight out of 10 Nice Peter you've worked with obviously number of districts across the the state I know I had

078an opportunity to look at Breen ridge's Serv survey from October just looking at some of the questions they've answered and care to share any of your clients you're working with or have worked with uh currently uh I should have written a list out I wrote I wrote seven surveys last week so it's getting long I mean brainard's in the field right now I was just up in Alexandria um uh my goodness gracious who did most at some point I've touched of the three of the 336 uh over 30 years it probably touched at least 70% of them at one point or the other I mean we worked with Little Falls back in the late 90s I think it was probably 20 25 years ago we were up there quite frequently um for for uh surveys

079uh historically so it has been a while will we know when you're done with the survey where the where the people were that you surveyed so we know it's a crosssection of our school district yes we keep track there'll be and part of you know people say 60 70 questions how can you ask that many questions um it's really easy when you start adding it and normally there's probably about 10 demographic questions um and like I mentioned first off it's to look at and validate against the census but then second off when we do analysis to look at differences between households with children versus seniors homeowners versus renters those sorts of things and then those results are all on this survey okay well I'm most interested we've got a big turnout here from Randall uh

080Minnesota so I just want to make sure and we get back this the results of this survey there's you know everybody in the district had a fair shake and who got to take the survey and who didn't yeah and I will I will I I will set up quotas within that um you know and depending on how populations break down um you know I I I want to collapse them down into categories that are big enough to be statistically significant so we need about 80 in cell sizes um in order just to run like a te test uh to look at um you know statistically significant differences um so I I would take a look um there are some districts um you know I'm not sure your makeup but I think of U the bull

081District a couple years ago and working through their bond process and they had to absolutely understand Bird Island community and it was a a smaller Community um uh is a piece of the you know the general population um but it was important to understand and break that out and not collapse that down so we can work with that um through the Scio process all right Peter you you summarized your timeline of the typical amount of weeks it takes for each stage of the survey if if our board approved the survey tonight considering your workload and schedule what does that look like of getting started in Falls I mean if it if it was approved tonight um I think my first question right now at this time of year is when is your spring break we

082don't have one we have Thursday and Friday Thursday Friday and Monday yeah for Easter holiday our students like to get out of school earlier well God you know I grew up in Wisconsin I I've never God we were done Friday Memorial Day Weekend yeah I agree wholeheartly now my daughter my nth grad was she'd had a heart attack on having spr great coming up um I I kind of think that's wonderful um so with with with that I like because it because it matters I don't want to start the survey really in the field during spring break that's you know we we call All summer we just stay in the field the nextra week uh to make sure that parents we can get people at the front back end of vacations um so I I

083think you know if the board would decide tonight uh the goal would be to uh in the next couple weeks uh get to a a draft um all said I'll be gone the last week of March for spring break with my ninth grader um and my 24 yearold who's taking along um so and to try to get something finalized get calls started early April um with Easter get the calls done before Easter um and then look to have results towards the end of April I I think would be realistic potentially we could expedite that um that process depending on when you're hoping to make a decision um but you know that would be realistically um you know sometimes and I always at the end want the board to bless the survey before it goes in

084the field um often times there'll be a subcommittee um or just sometimes it's a superintendent what have you I'm not sure what a process you would you would you would take um but there's it happened last summer there's nothing worse than me presenting in a school board member saying why didn't you ask this question and I have to look at the superintendent and say I I nobody mentioned it I I I didn't know this was an issue um I only know what I'm told um and so I think it's always best to get the um input at the end the blessing of the survey we haven't missed anything um that any board members are interested in Peter your process is very labor intensive people intensive um what you and I thought briefly with the sub

085with our committee of the board about the the price tag for a committee of this sort um I just want to make sure we're still on the same page what that that would potentially look like and re remind me did we did we talk 400 or 500 sample we initially we talk we talked five but if 400's a you believe is a better number we're fine yeah I I mean the the the five a lot of districts are choosing to do a 500 so we can look at likely voters um the but you know the 500 increas is the cost and you know once again the questions I I always say like a 500 would not exceed 25,000 a 400 wouldn't exceed 20,000 it's kind of in that range um if we have less questions

086it costs less it's the one thing until we get into writing the survey um I just always say up to 70 questions um most districts get there easily most districts they have to decide to cut questions we're just cutting questions today uh to get down to that 7 Level because um I mean there are I always say there are thousands of interesting questions um to me the uh regulator on decision making and whether a question should be included is is it actionable can you do something with it will you act on the data um and sometimes a client will come back could say we just want to know it's interesting um and that's fine uh but until we get in and so that's why I kind of do an up to what 70 questions and

087then they not to exceed I think that's it Peter thank you for the information very helpful wonderful all right thank you all thank you I know we had you give your report but was there anything else that you would like to touch on yeah just real quick we had Kim Garden registration good luck tonight thank you thank you so kindergarten registration was on March 3rd for next school year kindergarten pre school and right now we have 70 kindergarteners registered for kindergarten next year at Lincoln and at Dr Knight we have 14 and those numbers are very similar to what we had last year at this time for kindergarten and preschool registration actually kindergarten 70 and 14 and then preschool is 78 in Little Falls and 14 at Doctor night again very similar April 1st the

088Little Falls Education Foundation opens their Grant cycle window for any staff interested in putting together an ed Foundation Grant I'll leave it at that thank you sir okay next we're going to move into go backwards and do our flyer Prides Julie would you start us please sure all right Nick Abbot Olympic weightlifting coach a good coach can change a game a great coach can change a life Nick thank you for your continued commitment to coaching ow in Little Falls thank you for inspiring athletes to work hard commit to the process and reap the reward all builds more than strength it builds character instills discipline teaches grit and helps kids aspire to their full potential congratulations on another successful season Joe and Heidi fos St bus service bus drivers thank you so much for getting our

089students to and from school safety safely each and every day we appreciate you all so much Lindberg Elementary Carmen Z Media Center perah Carmen is a wonderful asset to our team she has the most caring and Generous Heart for kids and she always greets everyone with a smile she makes every day better with her awesome and uplifting bulletin boards too a woman of many talents thanks for all you do Jess Olson Jonathan Larsson social studies 6 through eight Jonathan is a team player who is always willing to help out and he's always sharing great ideas with staff Dan Fisher Sarah philippy La teacher Sarah is an approachable staff member because of her genous genuiness and honesty Sarah cares deeply for students not only in their learning but them as growing human beings I appreciate how

090she continues to create opportunities for our staff to bond and grow closer to one another and she looks on the positive side of every situation Jessica jansi Megan Sim high school English High School AVID coordinator I've appreciated Megan's leadership with our overseeing Avid in the high school she is very thoughtful organized and driven thank you Megan Miss Roski Christy holiday CC director Christy is a very knowledgeable and heartbreaking person I appreciate her help with NCA assessment setup questions thanks Christie Miss Roski this one's for Susie dor sub custodian always willing to come in when needed to sub for custodians on professional leave fantastic sub does a great job for Little Falls Middle School uh either a doctor signed this or let's just say Anonymous I can't figure it out Palmer bus service bus drivers thank

091you so much for getting our students to and from school safely each and every day we app appreciate all so much limber Elementary Calli dois kindergarten teacher you are a wonderful counterpart to work with and support students it's not always easy but you are a great collaborator Lauren Matson Linda lir Lindsay Lair first grade teacher you are a great counterpart to work with to support our students I love your willingness to try things and collaborate Laura mattinson Sean elol dean of students thank you for your dedication to our students to our students at limberg elementary also huge thank you for a for all of your help with I love to read month the kids had a great time reading uh Sabrina hler my first one is for Jackie croll High School per thank you Jackie

092for the great work you do supporting our staff and students at the high school you are a great team player and are never afraid to help out in other areas your hard work is greatly appreciated Mr lost Lincoln special events committee by Chris dolis huge thank you to our incredible events AR incredible special events committee for planning an eventful and highly successful I love to read mon Kim G Walt Katie MOG Lindsay Bal Amanda scuza CI dois Emily ibower Jay Ruby and Sarah poock Larry Edon principal thank you for making the transition to grade level Banning Soul smooth our first year so far has been great your leadership and commitment to our building is outstanding I appreciate all of your communication to staff students and families limber Elementary is lucky to call you our principal

093Sabrina Amy amurg nurse Health office Amy is a true professional who thinks quickly and acts professionally and is perfectly suited to handle tough situations because of her calm and responsive demeanor Dan Fisher and last one's for Erica bomb the admin assistant thank you for everything you do every day you always have a smile on your face and make everyone feel special I appreciate your help each and every day with making each day more smoothly so a hand for Oran tech support Scott has been super helpful in getting us prepared for virtual speech sessions including setting up our equipment with little notice he is always available to answer my tech questions even teaching me the proper names for techy things Jess wson Brian McCormack EBD level three at the middle school Brian is the walking definition

094of the calm and the storm we have had some tough days but Brian is an awesome partner who applies interventions with Fidelity we we so lucky to have him J Wilson Mr Dan fiser Middle School principal thank you Dan for supporting your staff and always being flexible and willing to listen to ideas and concerns thank you thank you thank you Rachel kot Janine pans um Dr Knight secretary a huge shout out to Janine for for train basically training me all school year couldn't have gotten this far without her she's the best thei and Steph hubner nurse at Dr Knight thank you for all the work put into planning and organizing the fourth and fifth grade ice fishing trips many memories were made that day thanks for all you do leoski Mike Moore title at Dr

095Knight Mr Moore is very appreciated because he is hardworking and organized he is passionate about seeing his student students succeed he has built some very positive relationships with students this year thank you Lear rosi Glenda Davis second grade Dr Knight Glenda is always willing to help whenever anyone needs her she will take extra responsibilities if her co-workers or students are in need I am so lucky to have to to work with her Whitney Toney Aon Johnson kindergarten teacher I love walking into your classroom and seeing a room full of tiny humans giggling and engaging in learning activities your personality and sense of humor that you put into your teaching is memorial and Fun For All Lauren Martinson Jess jansky middle school counselor and a AVID coordinator Jess it is very is very organized and reflective

096she is a big advocate for Abid and the middle school thank you for your Le leadership Lea rosi my last one is is Tony Bergman a teacher thank you for taking any class for me as I would so I could attend any meetings um at the last minute Peggy rexstad thank you to everybody who shares your comments for us for your co-workers we're now moving into new business and first thing on our new business agenda is the community survey decision this is an action item this evening I will make a motion okay we have a motion on the floor and a second a motion to accept going forward with the community service survey any comments questions or concerns regarding this I would just say with the amount of you know concerns around Community I think

097it's probably one of the best Avenues we have as far as getting your actual inut make sure it's done right that's why I kind of wanted to clarify that make sure they were getting the actual number of results that requested thank you Dan I also think they're getting the feedback from people that have no sway one way or the other I like that idea as well it's not sue if it's anal any other comments questions concerns then all in favor of moving forward with the community survey decision V signify by saying I I oppose I'll now turn it back over to Kelsey for the resolution for the child care PA professional position elimination all right Kelsey Herzog introduced the following resolution and moved to its adoption whereas the school board of Independent School District 482

098adopted a resolution on January 6th 2025 directing the Administration to make recommendations regarding the reduction Andor discontinuance of programs and and positions and whereas said recommendations have been received and considered by the school board of educa by the Board of Education be it resolved by the Board of Education of independent dis Independent School District number 42 as follows the following programs and positions or portions thereof be discontinued we have a 2hour child care her paraprofessional position and an at will employment child care coordinator position I need a second second right can I CH just to clarify this resolution and discontinuance of this these positions are due to our transition to the Boys and Girls Club taking over before school after school and summer child care and these three impacted employees have been talked to the

099first two it's just two hours of their day and the coordinator position is a a full-time position okay you're G to do a roll call vote Julie yes Mark yes Deon yes Sharon yes ni yes we have another resolution for Kelsey um retaining non-renewal of teacher contracts see her ince the following resolution move its adoption whereas pursuant to Minnesota statutes tier one and tier 2 licenses are temporary in nature and subject to non-renewal and whereas the board of education has determined the non-renewal of the following tier one and tier 2 positions Nicole Henry special education tier 2 teacher in Independent School District number 42 April elki special education tier one teacher in Independent School District 482 Elizabeth Michelle yes C gaps a special education teacher uh special education tier one teacher in Independent School District

100number 482 Adeline M McCoy special education tier one teacher in Independent School District number 42 Kristen Huck special education tier one teacher in Independent School District number 42 tresa gell Early Education special education Tier 1 teacher in Independent School District number 42 and Peter cisa special education Tier 1 teacher in Independent School District 482 now therefore be it resolved by the Board of Education of Independent School District number 42 that the teaching contracts of said teachers listed above in tier one tier 2 teaching positions in Independent School District 42 shall be non-renewed at the end of the 2024 2025 school year effective 30th 2025 and be it further resolved that written notice be sent to said teachers regarding the non-renewal of the teachers teaching contracts I will second okay just to note again this is

101as noted at the very beginning it's Minnesota statute that we have to eliminate these individuals because they are tier one and tier two repost for 60 days and these individuals can reapply for their position all right do a roll call vote Julie yes Mark yes Dan yes Sharon yes myself yes next we're moving into approval of policies if anybody on the policy committee wants to give extra information please do the following policies are what we'll be voting on policy 524 cell phone policy 5245 personal electronic communication devices policy 906 Community notification of predatory offenders policy 704 Capital assets policy policy 522 dealing with Title 9 I need a second for this please or excuse me I need a motion first to for the policies move and a second a second do we have any comments

102questions or concerns regarding any of these policies and any comments from the policy Committee just to note for the most part the there were minor revisions and changes to those policies because we are implementing most of those and they've been updated and we've tweaked them to align with our policies thank you we have a motion and a a second on the floor for the approval of the policies I read off all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed next is the discussion only policy it has been brought back for us to rediscussed um either Mr Johnson or somebody from the policy committee want to start the discussion yeah we had myself Julie Dan and Kelsey on the policy committee had a good discussion on all these policies but again Revisited the Pledge of

103Allegiance policy that we talked about last year and the state requires that we say the Pledge of Allegiance and our schools every day and we are considering making a change to that and I'll turn it over to policy members to share so we did some updating and rewarding essentially it it uh allows for anyone who opts to not participate in saying pledge that ability and that right to do so however at the same time it enables every child that does want to recite the pledge the opportunity do so also so and this is every day every day yeah the way the policy will read is um over the intercom the first morning the first day of the week over each school's intercom and then the following days of the week by each individual classroom teacher

104the teacher surrogate or classroom or Home Room student leader every day the rest of the week thank you Dad currently Dr Knight Lincoln and limberg recite the pledge every day the middle school and high school it's at the beginning of the week and talk to their principles and they'll if approved they will incorporate that daily likely having students recite the Pledge on the interc this is our our first introduction to this again so this is not an action item this evening just for discussion this is just discussion this evening does anybody else any more comments questions or concerns before we move on goe I will just say that I think before when we were looking at this we had some issues with intercom you know people couldn't hear all the time and um and we

105also I think did a survey with the students in the high school does that sound right last year last year so got some feedback from that but um those are some things that we talked about on the policy Comm as well I like the fact of getting the feedback from the students that's who it's affecting directly with the with the polarizing times we live in right now a better way to try and help bring everybody back together than citing Pledge of Allegiance for the the country and thank you to the policy committee and we will bring this next month again um next number six um approval of the May retire reception and presentation this is an action item that is the May board meeting and I don't have the date May May 12 thanks Kelly

106okay this is an action item so I need a motion to accept May 12th as the May retirees reception and presentation so second please second we have a motion and a second on the floor regarding the May retiree reception and presentation scheduled for May 12th any comments questions or concerns hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed next the um position that is only for discussion this evening is the marketing and grant writing position and you do did have a draft in your packet for regarding this correct this again comes out of the task force ideas to consider a marketing and grant writing position that would pay for itself based on the grants that it generates for example most recently we don't have a grant writing position but Kayla Gruber and

107Mark gerby wrote a grant to support the little fers child care center of $240,000 from deed things like that take an awful lot of work and time and to have someone devoted to that was the consensus of that subgroup that would pay for itself and be a good investment so we wanted to bring this sample draft job description position summary for you to look at Sharon indicated it's not a decision making item tonight I could do my best to answer any questions you might have I know part of the discussion at one time was on the um pay of the person and we've said that this would be selfs substained with within the grant writing so does that mean that they would be going for grants that would help increase what they're being paid that

108could be part of how we structure the contract you could have a a base salary with a contingency where someone could could earn up to a certain amount not to exceed whatever we determine based on the number of Grants they obtain okay I don't think we want a ceiling on that I think we would want a ceiling on why less they're going to bring us billions in Yeah the more they make the more money they bring in that's all they pay for themselves why do we care if we pay them a million dollars a year think of the money they brought in at a million dollars good point um one concern that I have is finding a qualified candidate that will be in this area so do we know how many school districts in the

109cities have this type of position and if they're successful in and getting those grants I can find that out and you know like a huge part isn't just the grants in my mind it's the marketing piece you know we're hearing from Dr Knight and all the families there that we need to increase marketing well pupil enrollments and so marketing is the way we're going to get to that um but finding a qualified person that understands education and schools and I mean we're not we're not selling something tangible that like you know that that's hard education is a whole other beast and I guess that's one concern I have I think the grant writing we you know that's going to payer itself and we'll get all kinds of awesome funds but how how are we going

110to use that marketing piece and um to our advantage because our enrollments are declining so like the whole point is to get these pupils in the seats and I feel like it's an uphill battle with the state of education right now with so many different options for students and their education you hit the nail on the head Minnesota is the state of school choice we we set the bar for that and we do compete for students and we're in an environment right now where everybody is declining enrollment and it makes it even more challenging but if there are things that we can do better tout some of the programs that we offer Implement some new strategies perhaps that could make a difference do we have a timeline that we need to be looking at that

111Administration is looking at us for making this decision not at this point in time I know when we talked about it at the work session there was interest from you folks to continue to pursue it um and here's a an idea of what it could look like and if you have more questions if we tweak this we'll make sure to share that with you but I guess it would be nice to have if we choose to move forward to have this approved in April or May latest okay are you thinking about putting out the uh job description now um I guess the reason I'm asked to see what kind of Interest we generate I wouldn't put it out until you folks approve it okay I just thought maybe it would be no harm in advertising

112to see what kind of Interest we generate to see what kind of person we could hire so so the way I'm reading this though is essentially we're looking at one position It's a combination of the two correct the base salary will be for the marketing piece to help the district get the message out there anything along that lines and then the grant rating Position will be commission style where that's up for negotiation you know we wouldn't have to structure it that way structure it we really want at this point but I do like I do like Kelsey's question to look into other districts and not just just school districts other organizations in the area that are using grant writers I'll do that thanks for the feedback in your spare time absolutely I feel like the

113grant writer will be maybe more easily coming to come by than the marketing one that's my thought we see okay then moving forward we're into old and unfinished business um we need to approve the revised District calendar this is an action item and this is moving um the March early release from May 23rd to excuse me March 23rd to March 20th um a change in the plan of we always have our early outs on Fridays and somehow it ended up on a Monday okay got was a typo so I need a motion then to accept this change on the district calendar for 2526 I'll make a motion to make the change to the district calendar for next year thank you Mark a second please I'll second okay thank you we have a motion and a

114second on the floor to approve the revised District calendar for 2526 there's no other comments questions or concerns hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I sign five is saying no everybody's agreeing okay uh we're going to move into reports from board members and Julie would you start us I have nothing okay Mark I have nothing to report Dan so Li touch base Mr ederton and uh they had a 91% attendance rating for parent teacher conference wow that was awesome that was awesome to see appreciated that and then uh see here important date to remember this this uh Friday the 14th is their all School celebration at 8:30 for anybody students there if you wanted to go and partake in that and that's all I got right now good kelse I want

115have W up yet I met with Jan Toma and the Early Childhood had all parents in attendance except for three families for conferences so they had a really good turnout too that might be like 9 but that sounds good all but three families um and then um I know I met with Mr doas as well and they had a big um read the I love I love to read month celebration on Friday and um I actually went that day and Mr dois was all decked out in neon which was really fun and the kids had such a great time throwing pies in his face and um all kind of giveaways and things so the kids were really really excited about that which um they met their reading goals and they get to go to a

116um movie migration this week Thursday contest yeah um I met with Dr sight's principal Leah Rosy was my first meeting with her since I um traded with Julie with we traded um buildings for this year and it was very informative and it was also the day that I have been asked to read so I got to read to a very interesting young group of students there and after the story I read um if I built a house and then the teacher said we also have a book called I built the school so I asked the te and you should know never to ask children if you don't know the answer but this was safe um I said okay if you were going to build a school what would you put in the school that we

117don't have okay so I'm sure some of you have the same ideas that I had they were going to say swimming pool climbing wall fun things what they asked for is a nap room and and the teacher said maybe because I always look tired but they said no they wanted it for themselves so so that was interesting and then um the only other thing is what we've already touched on is I was texting back and forth with my daughter-in-law who was down at the state championship and so it was going to score that score the score back so that was kind of nerve-wracking not being down there which would probably been just as nerve-wracking too but very proud of of our wrestling team this this year they did awesome and they had their wins for

118Walman years so that was awesome any other comments questions or good of the good for the school board that needs to go forward hearing none Al I need a motion to adjourn for the evening move second second any comments questions or concerns about leaving okay we've got 10 minutes till a band concert folks thank you everybody for joining today and tonight's meeting is is um dismissed e